"When you say only trade in the direction of muliple timeframe bars are these all bars that have closed?"
NO!
The current candle colors are what matters. - their colors should all agree.
If W1 , D1 and H1 are the same color, chances are price will continue in the same direction.
When the colors are mixed, you are fighting against someone. This is what gets many traders into trouble.
A simple rule of thumb of
only being long above the weekly open and daily open, weeds out the "weak" long trades. Of course, after price has moved to or past its usual daily trading range, it is time to look for long exits and take profit.
EURUSD this week shows how effective this can be,,,
The orange line is the weekly open.
Trying to short the EURUSD above the weekly open and daily open this week would have drained YOUR bank. But I would imagine there were a few traders putting their shorts on because of what they "thought".
Don't trade what you "think"... trade what you SEE!